Improvise with freedom in a wide range of musical structures genres, styles and traditions, drawing on internalised sounds

Introduce an improvisation using a 12-bar blues:

• show learners how to improvise a melody over a blues chord scheme
• ask learners to experiment with pentatonic notes and develop them into a coherent melody
• when learners are confident, explore effects created by adding additional notes, e.g. with the D pentatonic minor scale:

• add a flattened fifth (A flat) to turn it into a blues scale:

• extend the piece with variations to the original idea, and help learners to convey a particular mood or feeling
• emphasise an approach where trial and error are developed into fluent musical phrases
• record the improvisation and use it as the basis for evaluation

Ask learners to improvise melodies above predetermined harmonic patterns, using conventions and techniques within the chosen style, e.g. melodies in Dorian mode with added chromatic notes above a chord sequence of seventh chords.

Ask learners to improvise short melodies using a variety of scales, e.g. major, minor, pentatonic, whole-tone, blues, chromatic.

Ask learners to improvise with others by embellishing a melody, e.g. the pentatonic Raga Bhupali.

Help learners to develop confidence by improvising frequently, doing a little at a time.

Make recordings of improvisations and discuss the outcomes with learners.